The Chinese Nationalist Party (中華國民黨 Zhōnghuá Guómíndǎng), or simply called as the 1946 Kuomintang, is the ruling political party of the Republic of China since 1948. It was founded in 1946 by the members of 1919 Kuomintang inner opposition who were against Chiang Kai-shek's leadership and had exiled themselves to Japan during World War II. The guiding ideology of the party is the Three Principles of the People, advocated by Sun Yat-sen.

The party's earliest predecessor, the National People's Party or the 1912 Kuomintang, was founded by Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren shortly after the Xinhai Revolution of 1911. The party's foundations lay in many revolutionary movements founded by overseas Chinese that active in the late 1800s and early 1900s. These groups planned and supported the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and the founding of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912. The original Kuomintang was formed on August 25, 1912 as an amalgamation of the Tongmenghui and five other pro-revolution groups to contest the first national elections. The original Nationalist program called for parliamentary democracy and moderate socialism.

The 1912-1913 National Assembly elections gave over half the seats and control of both houses to the Nationalists. Though the party had an overwhelming majority in the first National Assembly, President Yuan Shikai, however, began to ignore the parliament in making presidential decisions. On March 20, 1913, Song Jiaoren, the Nationalists' parliamentary leader and Yuan’s most outspoken critic, was assassinated. The Nationalists suspected that Yuan was behind the plot. In July 1913, seven southern provinces, led by the Nationalists, rebelled against Yuan. Due for being ill-prepared, this revolution was unsuccessful and forced Sun to flee to Japan.

Flag of the Chinese Nationalist Party

Yuan then outlawed the 1912 Kuomintang on November 1913 and its members of parliament was expelled from the National Assembly. In exile, Sun Yat-sen founded the Chinese Revolutionary Party at Tokyo. A year after Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, Sun returned to China to establish a rival government at Guangzhou, but was soon forced out of office and exiled to Shanghai. However, after the May Fourth Movement sparked throughout the nation on May 4, 1919, Sun gained a renewed support and was able to re-establish and re-organize the party as the Kuomintang of China or the 1919 Kuomintang on October 10, 1919 with its headquarters in Guangdong.